# LESSON 135, If I defend myself I am attacked.

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/a-course-in-miracles-experience-7359020/lesson-135-if-i-defend-myself-i-am-attacked
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/a-course-in-miracles-experience-7359020/lesson-135-if-i-defend-myself-i-am-attacked.md
Podcast: [A Course in Miracles Experience](https://stenobird.com/podcast/a-course-in-miracles-experience-7359020)
Published: 2026-05-27T19:00:02+00:00
Episode link: https://iamacim.com/135.html
Audio file: https://api.spreaker.com/download/episode/70549653/acime_5_open_and_clear_reality_rev_devan_jesse_byrne_20210129_222747_mp3.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/a-course-in-miracles-experience-7359020/episodes/lesson-135-if-i-defend-myself-i-am-attacked
Duration seconds: 572

## Resource

LESSON 135 If I defend myself I am attacked. Who would defend himself unless he thought he were at­tacked, that the attack were real, and that his own defense could save himself? And herein lies the folly of defense; it gives illu­sions full reality, and then attempts to handle them as real. It adds illusions to illusions, thus making correction doubly diffi­cult. And it is this you do when you attempt to plan the future, activate the past, or organize the present as you wish. You operate from the belief you must protect yourself from what is happening because it must contain what threatens you. A sense of threat is an acknowledgment of an inherent weakness; a belief that there is danger which has power to call on you to make appropriate defense. The world is based on this insane belief. And all its structures, all its thoughts and doubts, its pen­alties and heavy armaments, its legal definitions and its codes, its ethics and its leaders and its gods, all serve but to preserve its sense of threat. For no one walks the world in armature but must have terror striking at his heart. Defense is frightening. It stems from fear, increasing fear as each defense is made. You think it offers safety. Yet it speaks of fear made real and terror justified. Is it not strange you do not pause to ask, as you elaborate your plans and make your armor thicker and your locks more tight, what you defend, and how, and against what? Let us consider first what you defend. It must be something that is very weak and easily assaulted. It must be something made easy prey, unable to protect itself and needing your defense. What but the body has such frailty that constant care and watchful, deep concern are needful to protect its little life? What but the body falters and must fail to serve the Son…

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